


Understanding Too Late

by thatcrazywriterley



Series: The Too Late Tales [7]
Category: AEW, All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Young Bucks-Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Multi, so sweet, they spoil their little girl so much, they're such good dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:56:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcrazywriterley/pseuds/thatcrazywriterley
Summary: Kenny and Cody might understand, but there's one more to take care of.
Relationships: Matt Jackson/Reader, Matt Jackson/Reader/Nick Jackson, Nick Jackson/Reader
Series: The Too Late Tales [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695274
Kudos: 4





	Understanding Too Late

_(GIF owned by wine-oceros on Tumblr)_

Matt stretched out on a lounge chair by the pool, our daughter asleep on his chest in the shade of the umbrella. He had one arm under her bottom to hold her in place while the other held out his phone, pointed toward where Nick and I sat on the edge of the pool, feet dragging in the water. I heard the click of the shutter as he took photos.

I let my head rest on Nick’s shoulder, our fingers twined together. He settled his cheek on my hair. “You look beautiful,” he murmured faintly, bumping his foot against mine in the water.

I snorted. “I’m bloated and my feet are starting to swell.”

“You’re beautiful,” Matt added from behind us. “Let us enjoy it, Y/N. We missed all of this last time.”

We turned back toward him, unsurprised when he snapped another picture. “Oh, you’re enjoying this?” I gestured to myself. “ _This_ bloated, swelling mess?”

Nick stood up and pulled me up with him by the hand. He settled his palm against my five-month-along stomach, stroking his thumb against the skin. “ _This_ is our baby, Y’N, and there’s nothing more beautiful to me—to us—than seeing you like this.”

Heat burned along my cheeks. “Sounds like you’d like me to be pregnant all the time.”

“Well,” Matt said nonchalantly, “we do have two houses. We’ve got enough room.”

I laughed. Nick slipped into place behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I looked up at him and then back at Matt, who was stroking his fingers through our daughter’s dark locks. My heart felt big and full watching them.

“Oh!” I squeaked, pressing my fingers against the curve of my belly. I snatched at Nick’s hand and pulled it toward a particular spot. “Feel that? She’s moving.”

I heard Nick’s intake of breath as our baby pressed and stretched. He settled his mouth against my shoulder, kissing my skin softly as he rubbed his hand in gentle circles. “Matt…” His voice cracked as he spoke just by my ear. “Matt, feel this…”

Nick walked me toward where Matt still stretched out. He wrapped his arms around my chest so that his brother could feel our baby squirming inside me. Nick kissed the side of my neck as Matt pressed his palm to the curve of my belly. It took a moment, but the baby moved again, thumping firmly against my husband’s hand.

He looked up, our eyes meeting, and I could see the tears gathering on his lashes. Matt sniffled. I watched him look from my face to my belly to his brother and back again. “We’re never missing moments like this again,” he said faintly.

Mattie stirred in her Papa’s arms. He grinned, helping her sit up on his chest. “You want to feel the baby moving, Tea?”

She rubbed her eyes with her chubby little fist and nodded. Nick crouched beside them and helped her find just the right place. She looked at him with wide eyes so like his own. “Be! Be!”

“That’s right, my love. That’s the baby,” Nick cooed. He smiled so brightly that not even the Southern California sun could match it.

The novelty quickly wore off for Mattie. She looked from her Dada to her Papa and frowned. “Wim, Papa.”

Matt grinned, captured her tight in his arms, and stood up. “Yes, ma’am.” He carried her to the edge of the pool and took his time putting on her pineapple printed floaties and making sure she was covered head to toe in a layer of sunscreen. Then he scooted off into the water, standing in the shallow end with the water around his hips. “Come on, Tea. Let’s swim.”

She watched him for a second, her fingers in her mouth. After a moment, she turned back toward us and pointed at Nick. “Oss! Oss, Dada!”

“Oh, Nick, don’t… please.”

Nick pressed a quick kiss to my lips and grinned. “She’ll be fine. Trust us.”

“Dada!”

“Coming, my love.” He turned and snatched her up, kissing her playfully on the neck and her chubby cheeks. “Papa, you ready?” Matt moved closer, holding his arms out. “Okay. One…” he swung Mattie out over the water. “Two…” A little further. “Three!”

He tossed our squealing daughter into the air and my heart dropped into my toes. I shouldn’t worry… I didn’t _need_ to worry… because Matt caught her a fraction of a second later and plopped her safely into the water. He held her just under her armpits as she bobbed, her little legs kicking and flailing beneath the surface. She grinned up at me, showing off her bright white smile.

“Take a picture, Nick. Hurry!”

***

I sat in the massage chair, my feet soaking in wonderfully warm water, and smiled as Brandi Rhodes took the seat next to me. She was pretty as always, her black and purple hair up in a messy bun at the back of her head. It was the first time we’d been together since that disastrous moment on that conference call.

“Hi, Y/N,” she said as she leaned over to give me a hug. “You look good.”

“Thanks. So do you.”

An uneasy silence settled between us as an attendant came over and started her foot bath. I started to wonder how I’d let myself get talked into this.

“Y/N… I know it’s none of my business… and, if you don’t want to talk about it…” Brandi looked over at me, her brows knitting in confusion. “What’s going on with you guys?”

I took a deep breath. Matt, Nick, and I had talked about this… about what we’d say to those people who asked, those we trusted. Cody and Kenny had asked a few questions, but they seemed to leave it at the fact that they loved their friends and they saw how happy they were with me. Brandi hadn’t been there in the locker room that night. We’d assumed that Cody had talked to her, but it looked like she didn’t understand. Not entirely.

My hand settled protectively on my belly as if I could protect the baby within from the cruelty that might come from the world. “We’re happy,” I replied, shrugging.

We spent a few minutes talking. Brandi asked questions, and I did my best to answer them honestly. For us, the life we’d chosen was normal. It worked for us. It kept us together, it created a bond between the three of us that was unbreakable. Matt and Nick had been inseparable before, but it seemed that Mattie had tightened that bond. Where I had once thought that they would be jealous of each other, of who got to be called dad, I now knew that they were something bigger and stronger than that. They were _both_ dads, and they were the best dads in the world.

Brandi finally reached over and took my hand in hers. “I’ve never seen either of them this happy. Cody’s right. I don’t understand, but I understand.”

“Sometimes I don’t understand either,” I said quietly. “But I can’t imagine my life any differently. I don’t know how I could love them more, but I do. Every day, I love them more than I did the day before. And when I see them with Mattie…”

My voice cracked, tears burning as I thought about the two of them with our baby girl in their arms. “Maybe I’m selfish,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Maybe all three of us are, but it’s what we want.”

***

I checked Matt’s house first, only to find it empty. I dropped my bag on the counter and slipped across the concrete pool deck to the back door of Nick’s place. The house was quiet except for the faint hum of a white noise machine. Smiling, I tiptoed down the hall to Mattie’s room.

The walls had been painted with a mural of a forest on one side and a tangle of thorns with a dragon on the other. In the middle of the room was a gigantic bed made in the style of a castle. The bed itself was on the bottom with a tower on either side, each with a closet to hold her clothes and toys. A set of stairs led up one side, across the top, and emptied into a slide that came down the other. It was painted teal, a white crown over the bed itself with her name in Disney-style letters.

I pushed open the cracked door and leaned against the frame, digging my phone from my pocket. Mattie lay on her stomach in the center of the big bed, her limbs akimbo, her favorite stuffed elephant clutched against her side. Nick and Matt were stretched out on either side of her, both turned toward their baby girl. Their bare feet hung off the end of the mattress, and I was pretty sure at least one of them was snoring.

For a long while, I just stood there and watched them. Just before I was about to leave, Mattie stirred, sitting up with her elephant. “Mama,” she said, reaching for me. “Mama.”

I smiled and crossed the room. “You want to come with me, sweetheart?”

She crawled to the end of the bed, holding up her arms for me. I kissed the top of her head and lifted her up, knowing it wasn’t going to be long before I couldn’t carry her anymore. Her head settled into the crook of my neck.

“Do you want to help make dinner for Papa and Dada?” She nodded as we walked to the door. Just before we slipped out into the hallway, she lifted her head and waved her fingers at her fathers, both still asleep in the center of her bed.

“Nigh Papa. Nigh Dada.”

Mattie's Bed


End file.
